title: Therapeutics for HIV-1 reactivation from latency.
abstract: Intensive combined antiretroviral therapy successfully suppresses HIV-1 replication and AIDS disease progression making infection manageable, but it is unable to eradicate the virus that persists in long-lived, drug-insensitive and immune system-insensitive reservoirs thus asking for life-long treatments with problems of compliance, resistance, toxicity and cost. These limitations and recent insights into latency mechanisms have fueled a renewed effort in finding a cure for HIV-1 infection. Proposed eradication strategies involve reactivation of the latent reservoir upon induction of viral transcription followed by the elimination of reactivated virus-producing cells by viral cytopathic effect or host immune response. Several molecules identified by mechanism-directed approaches or in large-scale screenings have been proposed as latency reversing agents. Some of them have already entered clinical testing in humans but with mixed or unsatisfactory results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-mediated Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sgarbanti
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Battistini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D014775:Virus Activation / Q000187:drug effects*; D017735:Virus Latency / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D019380:Anti-HIV Agents